The Plot Against America on HBO is a limited series that shows us an alternative history of America if the 1940 Presidential election had been won by a xenophobic leader. It is the first time in the world history after WWII that major democracies in the world have a liberal-bashing, center-right leaders who believe the history has wronged their ideology for too long and are determined to correct that ‘mistake’. The series is a timely production and shows us what the world might have looked like if America too had shunned the liberal and tolerant view.
The Plot Against America Story
‘The Plot Against America’ series takes a look at an alternative, xenophobic American history through the eyes of a Jewish family.
We enter 1940 America with people poised to vote to elect the new President. Competing against two-time President Franklin Roosevelt is a Xenophobic, populist leader Charles Lindbergh.
When Lindbergh stakes his insurgent campaign on the promise that he will keep America out of the European war, that he will remain neutral between Nazi Germany and the Allied powers, and most controversially, he names American Jews as being war instigators and disloyal to the true interests of America.
The anti-Semitism and xenophobia strike a chord with many Americans, who begin to regard fellow countrymen and outsiders alike with suspicion.
But the election contest becomes much more fraught for the residents of Newark’s Jewish enclave of Weequahic where Elizabeth “Bess” Levin, an insightful mother and homemaker fears for the future as she tries to protect her family amid the escalating political climate.
Herman Levin, her proud and opinionated husband who works as an insurance agent and tries to maintain normalcy and assert himself as an American citizen even as his country seems to be slipping into fascism, anti-Semitism and xenophobic isolationism.
Alvin Levin is the angry orphaned nephew who allows his own sense of injustice and political differences with his Uncle Herman to carry him from the streets of Newark to the battlefields of Europe and then back again.
Philip Levin, the youngest of the Levin clan who copes with his own innocent curiosity and growing anxiety in a world that seems to be collapsing around him.
Evelyn Finkel, the unmarried, older sister to Bess whose own plans were arrested by years of caring for her infirm mother and is hungry to find her own place in life.
Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, on the other hand, is a politically conservative rabbi transplanted from Charleston, S.C. who seizes the reins of history to become a key figure in the emergent Lindbergh administration.
The Plot Against America Cast
The new drama is based on the book of the same name by Philip Roth. The series comes with six episodes and premieres on March 16 2020.
The Plot Against America (2020)
Developed By: David Simon and Ed Burns
Cast: Zoe Kazan, Morgan Spector, Winona Ryder, John Turturro, Anthony Boyle
Network: HBO
Release Date: March 16 2020, 9 PM ET/PT
The Plot Against America Trailer
Watch this trailer of new HBO drama and tell us if you like this adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel.
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